Quilts for Charity!

I've mentione before that I was involved in my local Can't Stop the Serenity (or CSTS for short) this year, and we had a blast. I manned the merch table, while Ed did raffle tickets. We both busted butt. You can check out one of his projects for it, some bookmarks here.

But onto the quilts!


Baby Blanket Quilts (with Lily as a model)


Can't Stop the Serenity T-Shirt Quilts

This was my first foray into actual quilt making. All of these quilts are worked with t-shirt knit; actual t-shirts really! There was a lot of leftover merchandise from previous years of Can't Stop the Serenity and a whole tub full of t-shirts. I had a lot of red and black woven fabric donated by Ed's mom to turn into whatever, and some batting and fiberfil (which was used for pillows made out of the shirts as well). Me and a few other gals who helped piece and sew a little, ended up making 5 quilts, although I did all the construction, edging and quilt lines. All sold except one at the charity event on September 19th; one of the square block baby blankets.

I will admit that these quilts could have looked better, but in addition to myself never having made a quilt before, all the other gals had never even sewed! So, considering their crash course and my lack of experience I think they came out fabulously. The only problem I had was trying to do mitered corners on the baby blankets. It was impossible! I still don't know if what I did would be considered mitered corners on those, but I used this tute. I used actual baby blanket binding, the satin type. I just applied it like you would decorative bias binding, overlapping all layers and sewing through everything in one fell swoop.

The regular blankets got lapped corners. It was pretty simple and really I think it's my favorite way of doing this. The edges of those are the same color for the back. The baby blankets both got red backsides. I thought it was a nice contrast with the green/black/white of the front.

It did 3 of the quilts without a quilting foot (the kind that grips the top while the feed dogs grip the bottom) until I realized that I had one stashed away. What a difference it made! I kept getting little puckers, because of the knit fabric front and woven back, on the knit side, and the quilting foot really helped with that.

I also killed 2 of my best sewing machines making these quilts. Both of my Singer Stylists, one that uses cams, died in the process of making these quilts. I am and was so sad about that! One I have no clue what happened to it, but the other I think I can fix. I believe the problem is just an old gear that has been groud down into a flat piece of plastic/rubber. I just don't know how to disassemble the gears for it. There are some guides for a similar type of Stylist I can use for reference, and it's probably what I'll do, but other than just forking over the money to get it fixed, I'm not confident in my abilities. I don't want to make more of a mess than what is wrong now and then have to get all of THAT fixed too.

Now I'm stuck with my cheapy Brother and maybe I can get my Singer 66 up and running if I replace the belt (that I bought and has been sitting here for months). I need a good "jeans making" machine and my Stylists were it. My Brother can NOT handle thick material or topstitching through it.

Underwhelmed with 2009 Fall Collections

I got an email from McCalls saying that their fall collection was ready, so I got all excited and headed over there to check it out especially since JoAnns has a bunch of patterns on sale in the coming days/month. It was rather pitiful IMO, and then I decided to check out some others.

I'm not impressed. Somehow I remember last year had a lot of new stuff, with more than 1 or 2 patterns in each category and a ton of coats and fall clothes. Now I haven't checked out Vogue yet, but out of them all besides Vogue, I think that Butterick has the best selection and "look" going for them this time around. The plus size category, of which I fit into, is sadly lacking everywhere. It is a good thing that I know how to alter regular patterns and have a decent stash. Plus since I live in a pretty temperate climate, I can still wear some favorites year round.

But, other than eye candy drooling I haven't been doing much sewing related things. I sewed my first quilt a few weeks ago for a charity event called Can't Stop the Serenity, made out of old Can't Stop the Serenity merchandise, but sadly I forgot to take a picture. I have a few more to do though, so pics will be taken this time! It wasn't a traditional size, but the one I made (with another member putting the top together) was already spoken for! Some pillows, grocery bags made from t-shirts and a few other crafty projects are also on the list of things to do before the screening, which is our big event. We show a screening of the movie Serenity on the big screen, with a similar showing of Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog. All proceeds go to charity, one being Equality Now and another local charity. Can't Stop the Serenity is a worldwide effort put on by Browncoats everywhere. There is a raffle, the movies of course, merchandise, handmade goodies by people like me, and general fun and merriment.

Shiny!